


Next Steps

by Merfilly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 16:06:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15755121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: After the Battle of Hypori, Plo presents a new path to Shaak.





	Next Steps

Plo Koon settled in beside Shaak Ti's bedside, grieving for the lost, but relieved to find her recovering.

"The Council wishes for me to ask you to take a new assignment," he said softly, mindful of her hearing range and how delicate she felt on his Force awareness right now.

"What is it that it cannot wait until I am fully released by the healers?" Shaak asked, curious how those meetings had gone without her or Ki-Adi. While she and Aayla Secura were on the injured list, Ki-Adi had requested a brief leave to his homeworld to center from the Force backlash of it all.

"It's more that I am to go to a unit now, and I am coming before I leave," Plo reassured her. "The situation at Kamino bears further investigation, and a Jedi to fine-tune their training methods, to help the men be ready for interacting with their Generals and Commanders who are Jedi.

"It would also entail trying to learn more on the entire process that created them," he finished.

Shaak sighed softly. "Do they feel I cannot hold my place in the battles?"

"No," he quickly told her. "It is more that you have a strong sense of truth-telling, and they feel you may learn more."

She closed her eyes. Going to oversee the training would test her severely. She'd already seen two padawans fall, barely into their Knighthood, to killers. Could she prepare millions of young men to go die?

"I know what this means, Shaak. If you say 'no', I will endeavor to find a suitable replacement. Mace, however, feels you are the best, and Yoda concurs."

Shaak withheld her opinion on both masters' thoughts, because right now was not the time to be petty and exasperated just because she was in a bad mental state. Instead, she just inclined her head a little and reached for his hand. "Be careful, Master, with your unit. That … being we faced on Hypori is unlike anything we faced."

"This whole war is," Plo said. "But I will do my very best to stay whole, and keep the men alive."

"Tell Mace I will go. As soon as I am fully healed," she added, before settling to rest. Plo rose quietly and left, as there was nothing more to say.

* * *

Plo strode into the antiseptic halls of Tipoca City with a purpose, following his sense of Shaak Ti in the Force. He entered a room… to find her surrounded by boys, all about seven or eight human years, telling them a story about Shili wildlife.

He leaned against the wall, just inside, and listened, his heart happy for her that in so short a time she had come to be as comfortable with them as to be able to share tales of her adventures on her world.

That it turned out to be a time that Fe Sun had helped solve a village's problem made him even happier, because speaking of her dead was sometimes difficult for her despite being a Jedi.

When she brought it to an end, and she had risen to join him, the boys all wished her a good night and started climbing into their beds set into the walls. Shaak was smiling softly as she led Plo out of the room, and down the hall.

"You seem to have adapted well," he commented.

"I… did not know how rewarding it would be," she admitted. "I hope the war ends soon, so that they are safe from its horrors, but I am able to balance my emotions around them." She then let her lekku curl. "Mostly. I find that I do grow very attached to them, at all stages, for their innocence and curiosity."

"Hmm, good." He would leave off telling her he was hear to staff a brand new ship, to get nearly a complete legion's worth of the men. She did not need to dwell on the loss of his entire fleet. Not yet. "I find that I am hard-pressed to maintain any sort of distance with them," he told her.

"Well, if you plan on adopting them, you'd better know I have my claim staked too," she teased him.

Plo laughed. "Very well, a deal? You have the ones here to nurture, and I will take those already in the field as my responsibility."

Shaak joined him in the laughter, but nodded. "Sometimes, they call me 'parent' in their cultural language," she said.

"I think that is a fine title to add to your name," Plo answered, pleased that what could have been a very difficult assignment was helping her heal. 

Such a thing, in the midst of this great tragedy of their lives, was a treasure.

**Author's Note:**

> Totally my headcanons at work here.


End file.
